Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1887-06-17

the yard. the smell OF the frothing
pals of milk, the click OF the staneh-
ions, the cheese making, the bnttet-
packing--everyth thing that belonged TO
all the dull round OF the farm duties.
| went about to see the work done,
and said word to the maids, here,
the men there; and | went and sat
down by my kindling autun fire, and
felt that il had to live here forever
had better die and be done with it.
had rather die and bs done with it
anyway, II was never to see Mark
any more; but then that was no new
feeling.
Do what + would, my thoughts
would follow Mark. Was he there
alone in his fathers house? Was lie
riding gayly round the country, visit
ing other houses, other girls happier,
than ], hearing music. ioiningin laugh
teri Or was he travelling ofrin distant
regions, seeing new sights and forget
ting the old, forgetting the past and
me in fresh experience? Or twas he sat
ting at home there i'll the long dim
room whose windows looked through
the pine-wocd vista over the broad
valley and away to tho blue mount
ains7 No one told me; no one ever
ventured to mention his name to me.
But somehow placed him there inthe
long dim room, and there my fancy
kept following him and lowering about
him. Now he sat by the fireside there,
in The deep chair. reading, now he was
busy with maps and pictures at the
table; now, in the big bay, the moon
light, that had pale green re6exono IN
it cast up from the emerald depths OF
the woods below, fell about him.
| dare say that, in reality, busy
about the place and his affairs of one
sort or another, and doing his best
to live and to forget, he Was very little
in that room; but there | chose to
place him; and it grew strangely sweet
to me, and every moment when l
could sit down alone my fancy took
me and SAT down in that room, or
else | wandered up and down the
great staircase and the hall where his
peoples portraits hung; bu. ! always
came back again to the hearth of the
long dim room if it were day, to the
dancing firecast shadows there il it
were night, and the place grew dearer
and dearer to me every hour, and l
ter for speech for the folly and angry
temper that had shut me out OF it.
that had drawn comparison between
that ancient lofty place and this low
and tiresome stretch of nothing but
common grass lands, between that
manor ard this plain farmhouse, al
though in real truth my farmhouse,
was quite its equal at any other time
But tie new year came in without u
sign from Mark or a sign from me;
and the country was white with snow,
and the river ice WAS strong enough to
bear up sledges and teams OF horses,
ana the iceboats were splitting the
wind before them. 1t all made no
odds to me. was completely wretch
ed. ] didn't pretend to go to church
or to any of the society meetings; and
if the Sawyers and Wellses came to
me, | suppose / treated them prop
erly-I'm sure | don't know-but I
never set my loot outdoors the win
ter long.
There were furious storms that win
ter. The snow fell as never remem-
Oered it before. The drifts seemed to
wall us IN from all the world. "A liv-
ing tomb" used to murmer. "Iwish
1t were tomb indeed, and in my
last sleep" At twenty, one can be SO
very miserable; and at thirty, if one
lives so long, one can be so profane
as to laugh at it.
Sometimes Bryan and Thomas
brought word OF the outside regions,
of the way people up-river were sleigh
riding over the tops Of fences, of the
immense snowfall in the mountains,
and the fears of what would happen
fro n it in the spring if there should be
an early thaw. And | remembered
some words that Mark used to quote
from play he had seen, "When this
snow melteth there shall come flood"
didn't care how many floods came.
And so, with storm after storm. the
winter wore, away, Jane and Maria at
their home keeping tasks, and busy
with my rugmaking, hooking strips OF
woollen cloth through coffee bags, not
because the house was not full OF
them, but because had nothing bet
ter to do. For | couldn't read; if l
tried my eyes swan, and could not
make out a word OF what it was all
about. And people went and came
like shadows; and the days had grown
short, and now they grew long, and
what did 1t all matter to me?
| March had come, but without sign
of the winters breaking; and then at
last April loitered on. and April suns
began , do their work; and gradually
the drifts OF snow in the lanes and in
fields began to settle, and to lessen
and melt and disappear. Ard Bryan
and Thomas had to talk OF the brood,
ing hens. and watch for the breaking
/ up of the river, and discuss the chance
OF the early rye and the new calves
and the hiring of the spring hands;
and it was all emptiness. And one
day it began to snow, ard the snow
turned to rain, and it rained that day
and rained in rivers, and it rainpd the
next day, and 1t rained till it had rain
ed week-a long, dreary week that
babe fair to end only in deluge And
on Saturday the sun came out warm;
and when | looked, the crocuses
bloomed under the windows, and
Thomas said it was very like the MAY.
lowers were opened in the woods, if
anybody could get to them for the
roads all being under water, although
The river was still locked in solid ice
from shore to shore And in the late
afternoon OF the second day OF this
same sweet sunshine and south wind.
as We sat there, Jane md | Maria